Food Truck Dossier: Summer 2018 Roundup

The success of Food Truck Thursdays at the Columbus Commons is
just one sign of the prospering food truck scene in the city

Perhaps it's not terribly surprising for anyone who has been paying attention, but the local food truck scene has become a tough thing to keep tabs on.  There are some staples that have been around for seemingly forever (Pitabilities, Ajumama, and Paddy Wagon come to mind), there are new ones that have created quite the buzz (most notably, Cousins Maine Lobster).

Still others no longer seem to be around (Horn OK Please, which I rather liked) or moved on to other destinations and venues (Alice's Aebelskabels, which I wrote about previously, has moved to the land of aebelskilvels to Solvang, CA, while the well-loved Challah! has moved on to brick-and-mortar land with both Woodland's Tavern and Preston's Burgers.)  And with the plethora of businesses and spots around the metro hosting food trucks, it's pretty easy to not encounter the same food truck for months at time.

For a blogger like me, this means a lot of notes built up over time for a number of food trucks waiting for that next visit.  So I figured a change of strategy was needed - instead of comprehensiveness (which isn't as huge a factor with a medium like a food truck), I thought a roundup of some of the most notable experiences I've had with food trucks and carts would be a good way to go forward.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Year 5): Rising Up to the Challenge of Your Rival

Asheville's iconic Flat Iron sculpture, which was modeled by local artist
Reed Todd after the irons used at the historic Asheville Laundry.

"Love is a burning thing 
And it makes a fiery ring 
Bound by wild desire 
I fell into a ring of fire.

I fell into a burning ring of fire,

I went down, down, down and the flames went higher

And it burns, burns, burns,

The ring of fire, the ring of fire."

Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire"

We freely acknowledge as a couple that our appetite for hot, spicy food skews our perceptions a bit.  With that said not even the most veteran, heat-tolerant spice seeker (we don't count ourselves in this select category) can't avoid being sent into facial contortions given enough capsaicin in their consumables. 

Add in a little lack of consistent, practical experience of late with the hot and spicy, and perhaps our recent experience with one of Asheville's hottest food purveyors was to be expected.  Thankfully, the outing, with an eatery appropriately starting with the name of Rocky only put us partially down for the count, and a little after dinner ice cream treat soothed our somewhat seared pride.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Yr. 4): All Aboard the SS Rotterdam

Earlier this year, I wrote about Clown Cones & Confections, a place in the Linden area that's been plying its trade for four decades. While that area in general is hardly a tourist magnet, it most certainly is a neighborhood magnet, a place that folks who grew up there probably frequently visited and have fond memories about.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the eatery in the very early steps of establishing themselves. Most folks know that the restaurant business is a tough thing to break into, and that all manner of places (innovative, mediocre, just plain awful, etc.) fall by the wayside. Out of that group, there are places and people you root for more than most, and such are the folks behind the very freshly minted Double Happy in the southwest part of the metro.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Yr. 4): The Perfect Matcha

Perhaps due to its reputation as a fast-food haven and test market, Columbus finds its ethnic eats remaining a bit under the radar. I sure did not expect the large number of Mexican markets and food trucks in Columbus when I initially moved to the Buckeye state, much less the number of African restaurants that are just waiting to be discovered by locals and out-of-towners alike.

I was pleased to find out early on about another somewhat unexpected Japanese presence, something that made me feel a bit more at home early on. While this particular scene has gotten a bit more publicity than some of Columbus' other hidden culinary treasures (as in this 2016 NPR article spotlighting the scene), it still turns out to be a pleasant surprise for newcomers to the metro. A great place to start exploring this scene is the Japan Marketplace, which lies in the Northwest neighborhood in the Kenny Centre Mall.

The Ice Cream Chronicles (Year 3): High Interest CD's

It didn't seem right to let National Ice Cream Day without an ice cream related post, and in a way, Worthington's Cookie Dough Creamery is the perfect candidate, at least from a historical standpoint.

National Ice Cream Day dates back to 1984, when a Joint Resolution of Congress started the scoop digging on this annually tasty day for both ice cream purveyors and their sweet tooth customers alike. It was also 1984 when ice cream juggernaut Ben & Jerry's took up a customer's suggestion and started serving the combination of their vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough at their scoop shop in Burlington, VT. As they even admit, the combination seemed like a "no-brainer", as millions upon millions of kids (and probably many thousand parents) have sneaked away gobs of cookie dough for tasting from the mixing bowl prior to baking.

I admit to having a obsession with this flavor when the company finally released it in pre-packed pints in the 1990s.  At times, I would eat only the vanilla ice cream so I would be left with the hunks of the dough at the end, saving what I thought was the best for last. At the time, I (along with many others, I suspect) probably would've been a sucker for a pint filled with triple or even quadruple the dough chunks.

Well, it's 2016 now, and cookie dough lovers now have places like Cookie Dough Creamery to satisfy their mixing bowl dreams.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Vol. 19): In A South End Town and Dead End Road - Lombardi's Dairy Diner

Lombardi's Dairy Diner lies on the southern reaches of the Columbus metro

With all due respect to the Pet Shop Boys and, for that matter, the owners of Lombardi's, this roadside restaurant does not lie on a dead end road.

However, it's quite easy enough to drive right by this extreme southern Columbus metro area eatery on your way south on US 23 towards Circleville if you're not aware it's there. You may see it coming northbound on the same highway, but traffic at the closest intersection may discourage you to make that turn to get there (along with State Route 665 from the Grove City area, State Route 317 circles down from Southeast Columbus past the Rickenbacker Airport area to feed into this intersection.) Scioto Downs, just a half-mile north of Lombardi's, can add to the multitudes of automobiles that travel through this area.

Lombardi's offers a low-frills roadside diner experience, with the
usual menu items and a variety of ice cream options

But if you do veer off these main roads into Lombardi's parking lot, you will find a low-key, low-frills eatery that serving its roadside diner fare for over 40 years (according to the restaurant's website, the restaurant is open all year, but the hours vary with the season.) All the familiars are on the menu, from coneys to burgers, a variety of sub sandwiches to fried bologna, and pasta and pizza dishes. On this day, their restaurant sign touted their seafood options such as their lake perch, oysters and shrimp.

On this day, however, I was here for the ice cream. And to borrow from the Pet Shop Boys again, Lombardi's offers visitors a hard or soft option: roughly 20 flavors of traditional ice cream, and vanilla and chocolate soft serve (a swirl of both is also available.) This soft serve option presented a mild dilemma on this day in that a combination of kid-like nostalgia, a nice price (a large will set you back only $2), and the fact that I just simply had not had a soft-serve cone in awhile was pulling me away from my usual sampling modus operandi. An added factor was my status on this day as a solo traveler.

But then I figured out something pretty quickly: why choose when you don't have to?

Which do you choose, a hard or soft option...how about both?

The butter pecan, my standard flavor choice, was quite good. But on this day, the soft serve won out as the favorite, though I downed both cones with equal pleasure.

I ended up quite full (yes, this was quite a bit of ice cream) after downing these frozen treats, and I semi-regretted it for just a slight while afterward. But since I don't go past Lombardi's and this south end town all too often, I figured this was, in the end, just a big down payment for the next time we pass this way again.

Lombardi's Dairy Diner
6251 S High St (US Route 23)
Lockbourne, OH 43137
(614) 491-7570
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